Venice: The Golden Book

This beautiful picture book about Venice – with the subtitle All of the City and its Masterpieces - is published by the Italian publishing house Bonechi which specialises in picture books about famous places in Italy and around the world. It is a volume in the popular series called “The Golden Book.”

Books from Bonechi are published in several languages. I have used an English edition published a few years ago which has 128 pages.

Please note: in English this city is known as Venice, but the Italian name is Venezia.

Almost half of the 128 pages are devoted to Piazza San Marco, the adjoining Piazzetta, and the buildings surrounding these two squares, including:

** Basilica di San Marco

** The Clock Tower

** Procuratie Vecchie & Nuove

** The Campanile

** Sansovino’s Loggetta

** The Palace of the Doges

** The Bridge of Sighs (leading to the prison)

** Riva degli Schiavoni (the promenade east of the piazza with the famous Hotel Danieli)

These are some of the most famous and most impressive buildings in Venice. It is only fitting that they are given a prominent place in the book.

The four bronze horses, which are placed on the façade of the Basilica di San Marco, are modern copies (pages 15-16). Today the originals are placed inside the basilica to protect them from bad weather and pollution (page 26). The horses were transported from Constantinople to Venice following the fourth crusade in 1204. For more information about this please turn to The Horses of St. Mark’s by Charles Freeman.

The next section covers the Grand Canal and some of the palaces facing this canal as well as the famous bridge across it, Ponte Rialto.

At the end of the book there are two short sections, the first one about museums and galleries, the second about three small islands: Murano (famous for its glass factories), Burano and Torcello.

The book comes with a map of the city which you can take out. When folded out the map measures 62 x 42 cm. No scale is indicated, but the map is big enough to show individual buildings.

It is always good to have a map. But even when you have a map, you are probably going to get lost at least once when you are walking around in Venice. Getting lost in Venice is part of the charm of visiting the city. While you are lost, you will see something you did not plan to see, perhaps something interesting, perhaps something beautiful, perhaps both.

The text is clear and concise, as it should be in a picture book. There are 220 colour illustrations; all of them in high quality. Some pictures present the grand view, while others present a significant detail. Some pictures show the exterior of a building, while others show the interior. It is a pleasure to read the text and to study the pictures that go with the text.

All the highlights of Venice are here, including a brief history of the famous boat, the gondola, on page 105. I miss only two items, a small island and a small statue:

(1) Isola di San Michele, the Island of San Michele, located between the northern city line (Fondamenta Nuove) and the Island of Murano, is shown on the map, but it is not mentioned in the text, and there are no pictures from this place. This small island is the local cemetery, and therefore it is a very different place. Sadly, it is not covered in this book.

For more information about this place see my blog: The Island of San Michele

(2) The small porphyry statue of the four Roman emperors – known as the tetrarchs – is placed by the Porta della Carta, between the Basilica di San Marco and the Palace of the Doges. Like the four bronze horses mentioned above, this statue was transported from Constantinople to Venice following the fourth crusade in 1204. If you look closely at the picture on top of page 29 you can in fact see the statue. But in this picture it is very small, just 7 mm high, so it is almost invisible. Sadly, this charming statue is not mentioned in the text, and there is no separate picture of it.

The statue is mentioned in Constantine: Unconquered Emperor, Christian Victor by Paul Stephenson (pp. 92 and 198-199). There is a good picture of the statue in his book: illustration # 15.

Venice is an extraordinary place, there is almost nothing like it in the whole world. If you have never been there, you may still enjoy this book. The text gives you basic information, and the pictures are splendid. When you look at them, you may be able to understand why this city is visited by so many people every year.

If you have been there, I am sure you will appreciate this book as a valuable souvenir from one of the most fascinating places in the world.

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The Golden Book of Venice:

All of the City and its Masterpieces,

Bonechi, 1998, reprinted 2010, 128 pages

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For more information about this city see my blog:

 

Venice: Art and History

 

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